Lot Essay
The following are illustrated in J. Prendeville, Photographic Facsimiles of The Antique Gems formerly possessed by the late Prince Poniatowski (1959), vol.I, no.III, Venus transported by Zephyrur to the Island of Cyprus signed Apollonides, vol.II, no.343, Alcmena visited by Jupiter who to deceive her assumed the form of Amphytryon, signed Gnaios, no.362, Hercules having pursued for a whole year the stag of Oenoe with golden horns and brazen feet wounding it with one of his arrows, signed Apollonides. Prince Poniatowski ammassed a collection of 2639 gems, principally intaglios like the above all very similar in character, which have been attributed to late 18th and early 19th Century engravers. Cf. Christie's, 29 April, 1839 and O.M. Dalton, Catalogue of the Engraved Gems of the Post-Classical Period in the British Museum (1915), p.lxviii and Tait, op.cit., nos.836-839